One Lifetime Is Never Enough

1.61 Memories (1)

"JingHan.", The Emperor greeted the strange man personally, as soon as he and Zhang GuoFu were escorted by the Emperor's personal eunuch into his study. The eunuch then tactfully excused himself, quickly disappearing beyond the door and the garden outside.

Zhang GuoFu merely steeled himself, not daring to say anything for the moment. Even entering this particular room - which was always off-limits without explicit consent from the Emperor himself - was the first time for him.

The room was simple. Too simple, in fact, in Zhang GuoFu's opinion. The style and decoration was, by far, the most basic and plain among the many different rooms and halls inside the Palace. It was designed and decorated more like a commoner's living room. The only object standing out was the lone round table in the middle of the room - made of high quality oak and finished with deep brown lacquer. There was a rolled up scroll on top of it.

There was a couple of chairs set against one wall with a small desk in between, and a longer bench by the window overlooking the garden.

"This son greets Imperial Father. May Father lives for tens of thousand of years," he said his usual formal way of greeting towards the Emperor. The greeting towards one's superior - even if that one was his own Father - had been etched into him since he was small, so for him, it was just proper.

However, as he lifted his head slightly, he saw that JingHan was looking at him like he just performed a circus act.

The Emperor coughed, "GuoFu. Never mind the greeting. You don't need to be too formal this time."

At the direct way of calling by his little name, Prince GuoFu relaxed and straightened his body.

"JingHan," Emperor Zhang SongWang repeated his calling towards the stranger,

"Do you remember me? You used to call me Uncle Wang."

"What in the blasted heavens is happening??" Zhang GuoFu thought. But he kept his silence, "First it was the General, now it is my Imperial Father? I mean, he is the Emperor. Who is this man?"

JingHan narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at the Emperor, scanning him from head to toe. Gradually, his eyes widened as he - once again - grinned and laughed loudly.

He dropped the eagle that he had been holding all this time onto the floor - the bird's head hitting the hard wooden floor with a thump, this time waking it up. It let out a weak squawk in protest.

Zhang GuoFu felt so sorry for the animal.

Then JingHan walked in long robust steps, reaching the Emperor in a breath's time. Zhang GuoFu was still registering what had happened or what would happen; then he could only let his jaw fall as he saw that the stranger that had been called intimately by General Ji and his Imperial Father --

-- suddenly pulled the Emperor into a tight hug.

Zhang GuoFu did not dare to blink his eyes and let his mouth hang opened as JingHan merrily called the Emperor with his disjointed speech: "Uncle! Wang! Uncle! Wang!"

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Emperor Zhang SongWang could only awkwardly pat JingHan on his back, as he was being hugged.

"Northern Plains folks are so touchy-feely," SongWang mused bitterly, "I'm glad in this room there's only GuoFu. If my ministers saw me like this... my prestige and dignity as the Emperor could just be thrown out of the window."

"Alright, Jinghan, you can let go now."

Zhang SongWang examined the face of the young man in front of him carefully. JingHan looked so similar to his father - old Jing's leader's son - and also old Jing himself. The last time he saw him was briefly before the insurgence, when this young man was merely only about four years old. He was bubbly and bright, and he was always fascinated with Zhang SongWang and Ji ChanFang's sword arts.